It’s at once the most famous affirmation of Jewish belief—no other sentence in Judaism is more powerful—and the most misunderstood.
Feelings of awe, and dependence on God, are not the same as devotion.
Agnon or Herzog?
In a biblical book many of whose poems express anxiety and apprehension, Psalm 104 is a confident and joyous singalong.
A prayer book was edited so that the wicked Greeks became wicked Syrians.
The promise and peril of calling angels to bless your Sabbath table.
At the instigation of a 16th-century sultan.
Where is Jonah’s remorse?
Modern Orthodoxy vs. humility.
The two great liturgical songs of Yigdal and Adon Olam offer rival attempts to summarize the essence of Judaism.
More a contract than a prayer.
And its unique American variations.
Nishmat starts with the wide-open sky and the wings of eagles; it ends deep inside the recesses of the body, in our vital organs.
The ancient priesthood, the Pharisees, the kabbalists, the Ḥasidim—each of these and more have made a stand in the prayer book for what they think Judaism should be.